Chickpea Proteome\nAnalysis Reveals Genotype-Dependent\nVariations Associated with Seed Traits

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second most widely grown legume crop after soybean. Here,\nwe measured the macronutrients and performed proteome profiling of\neight chickpea cultivars using two complementary protein extraction\nsolvents. The total protein, starch, and soluble sugar contents significantly\ndiffer between cultivars, and we quantified 2434 and 1809 proteins,\nrespectively, from urea- and water-based extraction solvents using\na data-independent acquisition approach. The proteome-level differences\ncan vary from 9–25% for the urea-extracted proteins, and the\nstorage protein abundances significantly differed between the cultivars,\nwhere legumin content was detected as the highest, followed by vicilin\nand albumin. Fifty common allergens were detected from two extraction\nsolvents, primarily overrepresented in chromosomes 3, 4, and 5. Integrated\nanalysis revealed distinct subclusters of proteins and their associated\npathways for total protein, lipids, and starch content. Overall, we\nestablished chickpea pan-proteome resources and provided insights\ninto the key pathways that define the genotypes.